Rogers Cinema an Affordable Choice for Entertainment - Beaver Dam, Wisconsin

Unless you drink or want to hang out in a parking lot all night with a bunch of teenagers there is very little to do on weekends in Beaver Dam, WI. That's why Rogers Cinema is one of the places we visit most.

Located on Front Street, Rogers Cinema offers 4-5 movies weekly in its four theaters. With the exception of opening weekend of a highly publicized movie, they rarely are sold out and, most nights, you can sit in a nearly empty theater enjoying the film without having to deal with the noise of a large crowd.

I used to think Rogers was expensive until I visited other movie theaters. Now I realize they are actually a good value. Movie tickets cost $7 at night and around $5 if you go to an earlier matinee. The food is somewhat pricey but the concession stand offers several combo deals that allow you to keep the cost down (my wife and I usually spend $12 on popcorn and drinks). In fact, as far as entertainment goes, they are actually cheaper than the local community theater.

The staff at Rogers are also very friendly, something that is a bit surprising considering I wouldn't want to work there (they are required to wear tuxedos which have to get hot during the summer). I have never been in there and not had someone smile at me and greet me.

I only have two complaints about Rogers Cinema.

The first would be the parking. Like most downtown businesses, there is very little room to park near the theater and the only spaces available would be in the parking lot a few blocks away. It's not that big of a deal in the summer but I'll confess it does keep me from going during the winter time. There is some on-street parking. But, the theater is located near a residential area and those spaces are usually filled up by early afternoon.

My only other complaint is you have to be careful which theater they show the film in. Two of their theaters are state of the art. However, they have two others that are a bit older. One doesn't have as good of sound quality as the others. The other one, located upstairs, has decent sound quality but the seats aren't very comfortable and are too close together. The last time I sat in that one, my knees were digging into the seat in front of me.